Rocky Benevento

Tonight as I was walking my loop around Gabriel Park, I passed the baseball field for like to two thousandth time. "Rocky Benevento Field". For some reason, tonight I decided that maybe I should find out who Rocky Benvento is or was, since I see his name all the time. Bear with me if "everybody knows this", since I'm not a baseball fan, these things can get past me. So - for those of you who have or are yet to see the sign - here is Rocky Benevento.

Rocky is a member of the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame, inducted in 1993 under the "Special Contribution to Sports" category. He shares space in this category with Phil Knight, Joe Loprinzi and the Pendelton Round-Up, among others.

Rocky was the groundskeeper at the Multnomah Stadium during the heyday of Portland minor league ball in the late 50's. Here's an excerpt from an article by Portland Jazz Musician Tom Grant about Rocky...

But when it did rain during or prior to game time, this was the special province of Rocky Benevento. Rocky was the diminutive groundskeeper (they called him “park superintendent”) for the Beavers and another fan favorite. He was all business in his starched white coveralls with the bright red “P” on it, rooting around the infield lovingly maintaining the natural turf that had been brought over from Vaughn Street. Rocky had been a friend of my uncle Smokey (Harry “Smokey” Rodinsky) who’s company, Lewis Bros. Meats, had supplied the franks and burgers to the Beavers. Because of that connection, I had a supply of autographed team baseballs, photos and occasional face to face meetings with team heroes.

This page on PGE Park's history features a picture of Rocky moving the turf between stadiums.

There's not much else available online. There are references to an obituary in the Oregonian dated 1969.

So that's who the field is named after.